Anthropology of Food Final Exam, Spring 2010, Page 9
Anthropology 3688: Anthropology of Food
End of Semester Exam
11 May 2010
This exam is available in electronic form
from the General Purpose Course WebDrop Folder at
https://webdrop.d.umn.edu
If you are uploading a file to WebDrop call it something like
your emailname_CP_final
do not use the characters " / ' / # / :Upload all six of your questions in one file.
Do not upload them separately in six files.
You must finish and turn in or upload this exam by 3:55 p.m.
This is an open-book exam. You may bring and use your texts, dictionary, thesaurus, a writing handbook, class handouts, notes, outlines, drafts, memos, and a Ouija board. You may also use references and materials from your other classes and the web, with the caveat, of course, that you properly cite any sources you use. Friends, however, are not permitted.
You may bring and use your laptop but you must upload your exam to your WebDrop folder at the end of the exam period https://webdrop.d.umn.edu>. Please upload the entire exam as one file, including the optional take-home question if you choose to do that question.
NOTE: If you normally generate a .wps file (from the Microsoft Works word processor) please turn in your paper as a .rtf (Rich Text Format) document. ( It does not work simply to type in the .rtf extension on an existing .wps file. You must load the original document and then resave it as a .rtf file type.)
Answer SIX (only 6) of the following eleven questions. Keep in mind that there is more than one approach you can take in answering these questions.
Follow these guidelines:
- Organize your answer before you begin.
- Be sure to state:
1. What or who something is
2. Where it occurred or is located (if appropriate)
3. How it is important
4. When it occurred
5. Why it is important
- State YOUR position or approach clearly.
- Cite specific examples or references to support your statements.
- Mention problem areas or other relevant materials which you would like to consider further in a more thorough statement. That is, when you're finished with your answer, what major questions are still left unanswered?
- Summarize your argument or discussion.
- Wherever appropriate use materials from more than one region of the world.
- Remember that each of your responses should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.
- Note: Do not discuss any topic at length in more than one question.
1. From the AFforum:
As seen in the film The Pig Commandments, the consumption of pork can tear apart a country. The word meat in Chinese is synonymous for pork. However, there is also a large population of Malaysian Chinese, who are Islam and do not eat pork, in accordance with the teachings of the Koran. Discuss how both groups view pork and why eating pork has caused social tension between groups in China.
2. From the AFforum:
In the film FRESH and Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, the class was introduced to Joel Salatin, a revolutionary farmer from Virginia who relies heavily on the observation of the natural world for the basis of his techniques. He has developed a rotational grazing system which has provided great insight into the topic of sustainable livestock management.
1. Explain the vision he has as to how he approaches the cycle of his farming methods and how his rotational grazing system is widely respected as one of the most sustainable forms of agriculture.
2. Explain why you believe the system is practical or impractical for use on a grand scale.
3. From the AFforum:
In The Cultural Feast text, Ch. 7 focuses on “Food and Social Organization.” Within that focus is a section on “food and the life cycle.” Identify the main theme of the section and outline its other points. Relate some of these ideas with your own experiences.
4. From the AFforum:
"According to the FDA and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are over 40 (genetically modified) plant varieties that have completed all of the federal requirements for commercialization http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Elrd/biocon. Some examples of these plants include tomatoes and cantaloupes that have modified ripening characteristics, soybeans and sugar beets that are resistant to herbicides, and corn and cotton plants with increased resistance to insect pests. Not all these products are available in supermarkets yet; however, the prevalence of GM foods in U.S. grocery stores is more widespread than is commonly thought." -- Quoted from: http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/gmfood/overview.php
The question comes down to answering if genetically modified, GM, foods are a good idea or bad idea.
In one presentation in class it was mentioned that “Golden Rice” is supposed to help countries with serious malnutrition, especially vitamin-A-deficient societies, who also have a staple food that already contains this needed nutrient. Also, plants can be grown to resist disease and insects. This has been done to a lesser degree throughout history, in careful cultivation of desirable traits in a field of plants. The potato is so diverse in South America, for example, because the different traits were promoted, over generations, by planting plants in different mountainous climates.
In answering this question, consider the issues of transporting food, having money to produce the crops, how the environment (including, but not limited to, non-GM plants) may be affected, and how this can have a huge change in how people see food.
5. From the AFforum:
Identify a governmental policy, regulation, stipulation or any type of governmental legislation or regulation (U.S. government, E.U., New Zealand Food Safety Authority, The Minneapolis-Saint Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission [MAC], or any other) that has been created and enforced in order to control how food is produced, transported, traded, or consumed, or, how people who have recently been on a farm travel. Please also discuss the effects of this governmental action. What are some implications of it?
6. From the AFforum:
Discuss whether or not “Texmex” food qualifies as an “American cuisine.” Include in your discussion arguments from class presentations on Texmex foods and Mexican Cuisine.
7. Sherrie A. Inness focuses on cookbook authors and related food commentators/presenters as agents of social change. Discuss what you consider to be the three most important points she made in her book Secret Ingredients: Race, Gender, and Class at the Dinner Table (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).
8. During the semester we watched three one-hour episodes of the Marcus Samuelsson/PBS series The Meaning of Food: Episode 1: "Food & Life,” Episode 2: "Food & Culture," and Episode 3: "Food & Family." The three Episodes contained twenty-five segments portraying one or other culture or aspect of modern-day food.
Which of the segments—not including the introductions or summaries—from each of the three Episodes was (A) your favorite, and (B) your least favorite.
That is, for example, from Episode 1: "Food & Life,” what was (A) your favorite segment, and (B) your least favorite segment? Why?
And from Episode 2: "Food & Culture," what was (A) your favorite segment, and (B) your least favorite segment? Why?
And from Episode 3: "Food & Family," what was (A) your favorite segment, and (B) your least favorite segment? Why?
The lists of Episodes and segments, should you need a little refresher on them, are available on-line at http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/anthfood/video/Meaning_of_Food.html#title.
9. During the initial presentation of the Two Fat Ladies it was suggested that you do a freelisting of “the things the Two Fat Ladies talk about or mention that are not specifically related to the actual cooking of the meal in the kitchen” during the episode “Timber!” of their TV Program (Series 4 Episode 23, 30 min., 2008, DVD 1698). Sherrie A. Inness in Secret Ingredients discusses the many non-recipe-oriented messages the Two Fat Ladies brought to their books and TV programs. For this, some think they were “visionaries.”
In the context of what you have learned in Anthropology of Food, discuss the main three ways you think the Two Fat Ladies could be considered “visionaries.” Incorporate items from your freelisting as appropriate.
10. Optional Take-Home Question:
NOTE: Essentially you may make up ONE question total. You may either do that as a take-home and bring it to class with you, or you may do that in class the day of the exam. If you elect to do the optional take-home exam and bring it with you to class, then you must choose five (5) additional of the remaining questions presented on the actual exam, as they are presented on the exam.
Do not ask a question relating to your class presentation
or to your term paper.
If you do not like these questions, make up and answer a question of your own choice relating to a topic having to do with the Anthropology of Food which you have not considered in your other answers and concerning a topic related to the materials covered in class since the midterm exam. Do not select a topic that was part of your in-class presentations. (If you think these questions are fantastic but simply prefer to make up one of your own, go ahead.)
Answers should contain specific information supporting your position. Both your question and your answer will be evaluated.
If you elect to make up and answer a question, you may prepare your question and answer in advance and bring it with you to the exam. If you prepare your question in advance you only need to answer five (5) other questions in class.
11. On Current Affairs:
'Profound' decline in fish stocks
Reads the BBCNews headlines from 04 May 2010
“Over-fishing means UK trawlers have to work 17 times as hard
for the same fish catch as 120 years ago, a study shows.”
Read the full article below, or on-line
at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10096649.stm.
Task: Analyze this article and the related link “EU 'must return' fishing control” (BBCNews headlines from 28 April 2010 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/8647314.stm>, reprinted below) from the point of view of what you have learned this semester in the Anthropology of Food.
'Profound' decline in fish stocks shown in UK records
Page last updated at 15:13 GMT, Tuesday, 4 May 2010 16:13 UK
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Landings into UK ports in the 19th Century were four times higher than today
Over-fishing means UK trawlers have to work 17 times as hard for the same fish catch as 120 years ago, a study shows.
Researchers used port records dating from the late 1800s, when mechanised boats were replacing sailing vessels.
In the journal Nature Communications, they say this implies "an extrordinary decline" in fish stocks and "profound" ecosystem changes.
Four times more fish were being landed in UK ports 100 years ago than today, and catches peaked in 1938.
"Over a century of intensive trawl fishing has severely depleted UK seas of bottom living fish like halibut, turbot, haddock and plaice," said Simon Brockington, head of conservation at the Marine Conservation Society and one of the study's authors.
"It is vital that governments recognise the changes that have taken place (and) set stock protection and recovery targets that are reflective of the historical productivity of the sea."
Victorian values
In the late 1880s, the government set up inspectorates in major fishing ports in an attempt to monitor what fish were being landed.
There's nothing basically wrong with the CFP and not much wrong with the scientific research they receive
Philip MacMullen Seafish
"The records are pretty reliable," said Callum Roberts from the UK's York University, another of the study authors.
"The Victorians were very assiduous about collecting information; and while some of the landings might have been missed from smaller ports, the larger ports were covered very efficiently," he told BBC News.
Around the same period, naturalist Walter Garstang was beginning to analyse "fishing power" - essentially, the capacity of a fleet to catch fish.
The biggest change over the period was from sail to engine power.
"With sail power, boats could only go at fixed times and only in certain places with a smooth sea bottom," Professor Roberts noted
"But when you got engines, that meant they could fish in any conditions of wind or tide and sea bed."
As waters near the coast became depleted, industrialisation also meant the UK fleet could travel further in search of new grounds - a phenomenon that took off after 1918.
But despite the growing power and range, the amount of fish caught for each unit of effort has gone drastically down, with 17 times more effort required now to catch the same amount of fish as compared with the late 1800s.
'Old news'
Philip MacMullen, head of environmental responsibility at the UK's industry-funded sustainability organisation Seafish, suggested that accenting the historical picture could obscure more recent improvements.
"It could be correct but I don't know, and I don't think the data support the findings," he said.
Fish such as plaice have been fished further and further afield
"But it's old news. Fifteen years ago we started understanding how badly management was working, and 10 years ago we started doing something about it."
Seafish points out that in the last decade, stocks of some species such as cod have shown increases.
But Professor Roberts counters that the long historical timeline in his study shows the recent improvements to be small in scale.
"If you get a 50% increase from 2% of a species' former abundance, you get to 3% of its former abundance, so you shouldn't celebrate too hard," he said.
"That's why this perspective is important."
Whereas UK fishermen tend to blame the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) for their economic problems, the authors of this study say it proves that depletion stems from mismanagament well before the CFP came into existence.
"There's nothing basically wrong with the CFP and not much wrong with the scientific research they receive," commented Dr MacMullen.
"But what happens to that advice when it goes up to the Council of Ministers - it's completely mis-managed."
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